The popular children’s nursery rhyme goes:
“London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.
Off to prison you must go,
You must go, you must go;
Off to prison you must go,
My fair lady.”
THE LYRICS SEEM innocent on the surface, but some scholars believe it’s a reference to immurement, the medieval punishment where a person is locked in a room until his death.
We remember playing the London Bridge game in the schoolyard with our friends, chanting the tune, and trying not to get caught as the “arch” fell down.
In recent times, some of us are so familiar with the nursery rhyme that some would sing or hum it during situations of failure as it depicts collapse of something or the lack of success in an endeavor or goal.
Thus the rhyme —this time— seems to be appropriate in describing the collapse of part of the Cabagan-Santa Maria bridge in Isabela. London bridge fell down either because it was decrepit, due to structural failure, or weakened over enviroment or time.
FLAWED HANGING BRIDGE
And in the case of the controversial bridge in Isabela, no less than President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. commented that it was the first time he saw a hanging bridge with no cables — triggering speculations that there was corruption or was there a design flaw in its construction?
However, any defect in the bridge plan has been denied by the engineer who designed it. He maintained that the plan was compliant with the country’s standard guidelines for the construction of bridges.
Engr. Albert Cañete, in a television interview, asserted that his firm’s design of the Isabela bridge was in line with the specifications set by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which particularly mandated specifications “for a (minimum) load limit of 27 tons for 10-wheeler (trucks).”
In the case of the Cabagan-Sta. Maria bridge, which has two lanes, the design was drawn to accommodate up to 54 tons or the equivalent of two trucks weighing 27 tons each. With this in mind, the DPWH in Cagayan Valley reported that trucks weighing 102 tons caused a portion of the bridge to collapse.
FORENSIC ENGINEERING PROBE
Cañete declined to comment on Marcos’ earlier statement that the collapse was due to a “design flaw”, but he enthused that such statements should be based on the results of a “forensic engineering investigation.”
The engineer said he decided to speak up on the matter as his name is already being dragged into the controversy even before the investigation is completed. Declining to comment on the actual construction of the bridge, including the materials used, Cañete said he is not involved in the construction.
But what is significant in Cañete’s reaction was his expression of support for amending the country’s bridge code even as he noted that newer trucks nowadays have higher carrying capacities.
The engineer recommended that in designing a bridge, consideration should be ready for the possibility that lots of overloaded trucks may pass through since the specified capacity value is only the minimum.